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Redundant MS Notification about XP EOS?


JorgeA

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One of my XP systems received a Windows Update "intended to notify customers of the Windows XP End of Support date, April 8,. 2014."

The information page for this Update says, among other things, that

This update enables the function that sends a notification to Windows XP users about the end of support for Windows XP on April 8, 2014.

Here's a possibly silly question: Microsoft is notifying XP users about a Windows Update regarding the end of support on April 8 that tells people that there is a Windows Update to notify them of the end of support on April 8. :wacko:

I don't understand the point of making a (504KB :w00t: ) Windows Update for this, as the purpose has already been served by the one-sentence notification about the update. :unsure:

The only scenario where I see this having any use is for people who have set automatic updates and never check to see what they are, just allowing Microsoft to install whatever it wants on their PCs. And who in addition have somehow managed to get this far without learning of the impending EOS for XP.

Is that what this update is for? I almost felt like it was malware of some sort.

--JorgeA

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It sure smells foreboding. :ph34r:

As it is, I'd say it's just another device to fulfil the role of making sure nobody'll ever be able to claim he/she wasn't warned in advace.

It sure is really invasive, but not unheard of... and, of course, if one leaves Auto Update on, one is giving MS permission to install whatever they deem is needed... :thumbdown

And they can always say if one wanted to review every update beforehand, all one needed to do was to disable Auto Update and use the MS Update or the Windows Update sites in manual mode...

I do use manual mode and have always recommended it to anyone who asks my advice... but most people never follow it, anyway....

More info about it elsewhere (although they do view it in a more favourable light than we do), and an image, too:

Notification_5F00_64E154AA.jpg

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Well after reading this post, I went and ran an XP update check and that is what I also see ... just ran an update check a few days ago and it wasn't there.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Windows XP End of Support Notification (KB2934207)

Date last published: 3/5/2014

Download size: 504 KB

This update is intended to notify customers of the Windows XP End of Support date, April 8th 2014.

System Requirements

Recommended CPU: Not specified.

Recommended memory: Not specified.

Recommended hard disk space: Not specified.

How to Uninstall

This software update can be removed via Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.

Get help and support

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/end-support-help

More information

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2934207

--------------------------------------------------------------

dencorso ... "to anyone who asks my advice... but most people never follow it, anyway...."

... not true my friend, always read and have read what you and the other sages post ... USB info, XP now and Windows 98SE before. When I see dencorso, I think Brazil !!!

"A sage is a person of profound wisdom ... a wise old man!" ... well OK, we can probably take out the word "old" ...

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This just confirms how desperate they are. It is more FUD/Scare Tactics to TRY and force users off of what they call an outdated operating system.

It is really to bad that they don't think about selling support for X dollars a year. There are a fair number of folks that would never sign up for, but I bet there would be a very large number that would. It would do two things...

1) extend the life of a fairly decent OS and

2) extend the life of compatible hardware and drivers.

But, what do I know. I'm just an old f&*t that quit their treadmill with 2K and moved on to a FOSS OS for the newer stuff.

bpalone

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I agree, more FUD, they are desperate to force people off XP. It causes me to wonder how long they will keep XP activation available. With XP being their first OS to require activation, there is no history to know exactly what they will do about activation after EOL.

With all the FUD they are pushing, I don't expect them to kill the need for activation but more likely to pull the plug especially if some sasser-like worm or malware starts attacking XP computers.

But of course, refusing activation will only really hurt the honest guys who have legit legal copies. The millions of pirated copies in China and the Far East would likely be reinstalled and just go on using their fake/pirated activation software.

The road ahead is going to be interesting.

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More info about it elsewhere (although they do view it in a more favourable light than we do), and an image, too:

Notification_5F00_64E154AA.jpg

Wow, THAT is what the updates does??

It would be (mildly) interesting to find out how the updates behaves if you check that box for "Don't show this message again." Like that "update" for the Bing Bar that I keep hiding and then keeps magically coming back...

Anyway, just want to let you know that I'm totally with @monroe on this -- your advice is sage, and certainly listened to here! :)

--JorgeA

EDIT: typo!

Edited by JorgeA
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At the risk of alerting @jaclaz's radar :ph34r:;) , here's an observation about ending Windows Updates for XP by security guru Steve Gibson:

[...] the thing that's annoying is that Microsoft is essentially getting XP security fixes for free for the most part because all the same things, what we keep seeing is when there are vulnerabilities found, they exist in Windows 8 and 7 and Vista and XP because it's a common code base. My complaint with this constant version churn is that it's not for the users' sake, it's for Microsoft's sake. It's for upgrade revenue, largely. I mean, look at what a catastrophe Windows 8 has been. Why did they force everyone off 7? Well, because they can get revenue from upgrading people.

So I guess what's annoying is, if there was a security vulnerability that only affected XP, I could understand them not patching it. But they're actually addressing vulnerabilities in the core shared code of all of these OSes. So why not toss in XP if it applies, rather than just saying no, from April 8 on of 2014, you don't get patched. Because what that does, of course, is it's forcing upgrades of people who don't want to upgrade. Their XP is working just fine, like mine is. I have no interest in upgrading. But I'm not - I and a world of other people are, what is it, it's like 43% of Windows is still running XP, something crazy like that, because it's just fine. But Microsoft is saying, okay, we're not going to continue patching, even when we have the patches. Even when we develop them, we're not going to give them to you because we're going to make you upgrade. [...]

[emphasis added]

--JorgeA

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More info about it elsewhere (although they do view it in a more favourable light than we do), and an image, too:

Notification_5F00_64E154AA.jpg

Wow, THAT is what the updates does??

It would be (mildly) interesting to find out how the updates behaves if you check that box for "Don't show this message again."

Let's imagine it removes itself from the auto-run hook (there are so many of them in windows) it normally uses, but remains present on disk.

Then one may take one further step and go to Add/Remove in the Control Panel and remove it. At this point it'd be deleted from the disk...

But I bet it'd still leave some tell-tale trace in the registry, that reveals it was there once (ostensibly to prevent reinstalation, for instance).

Fact is, in any case, MS wins: if one let's it install unaware, then removes it as I just imagined above, on one hand, if one prevents it from installing, as I did (and I presume most of my readers here also did or will do), on the other hand, or even when one simply let's it install and go on nagging unhampered, on the third (!) hand... now no one at all may credibly pretend to have been unaware of the fact XP goes EOS on April 8, 2014, which is what MS wanted to accomplish. :wacko:

Notice, however, that I wrote EOS (End of Support), not EOL. That's because, despite everything, no matter what's said, I'm positive Windows XP will live much longer than that. :yes:

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I don't know (I have mixed views on this). On the side of Microsoft, I can see them saying from a marketing perspective, "Look folks, Windows XP no longer represents what Windows is in 2014. In fact Vista and Windows 7 no longer convey that image. When you think Windows, we want you to imagine a tablet-firendly, compatible OS that can run your existing modern or desktop applications. XP is not in line with that."

And since you are licensed the use of the OS, cannot Microsoft take that away as they feel? If they own XP, don't they have the right to say, "Stop using it please?", so should they not be allowed to kill activation?

However, on the side of the user, Windows 2000 users have been already going through what XP users face since 2010. Why is this such a new phoenomenon with XP (Activation concerns aside).?

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And since you are licensed the use of the OS, cannot Microsoft take that away as they feel? If they own XP, don't they have the right to say, "Stop using it please?", so should they not be allowed to kill activation?

Of course they can, point is what will be the consequences of such a stupid move?

Please choose one:

  • everyone using an activation crack
  • everyone suing MS (and most probably winning)

However, on the side of the user, Windows 2000 users have been already going through what XP users face since 2010. Why is this such a new phoenomenon with XP (Activation concerns aside).?

The user base of "real" Windows 2000 users was much smaller, AND there was no particular "shock" in the transition to XP (or to a later MS OS).

You have to understand how the "user base" of Windows 2000 was (and is) a "professional" one, that tends - generally speaking - to whine or brag about it a lot less than "end customers", i.e. of a "more advanced" kind than the "average" XP user.

At the time there was a neat separation:

Professional=Windows NT 4.00 and later 2000

Home=Windows 98 and later Me

In the (unfortunately short) time of Windows 2000 success, say 95% of the people came from Windows NT 4.00, and Windows 2000 is by definition "a bettered Windows NT 4.0 with plug n' play support".

The transition from NT 4.00 to Windows 2000 was actually more painful than the one from Windows 2000 to Windows XP, which is, still by definition "a bettered Windows 2000, that works the same but that has some added, unneeded, bells and whistles".

The real "shock" was from Windows 98 or Me to XP. :w00t:, almost as much as it was the one from XP to Vista :ph34r: or 7.

With XP MS has senselessly "pushed" on common users "professional features", and with Vista :ph34r: and now with 8 :( has pushed on professional users nonsensical features that may be suited - perhaps - to common users.

It is still the same one-OS-fits-all absolutely wrong approach, which has touched it's peak with 8 .

You might want to take note of the current definitions of later MS OS ;):

  • Vista is a bettered XP, only much worse (original Vista, before SP's)
  • 7 is a bettered Vista , that works the same but that has some added unneeded bells and whistles"
  • 8 is a bettered 7, only much worse and with a completely wrong UI

jaclaz

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Microsoft is having a really hard time making XP go away. I see they attack it from all fronts, publishing advertisements about its end of life. My Windows Update has always been off, so I missed this one. Sadly, it seems to be working, because random people, who have no associations with MS, respond to me telling that the source of this or that problem I describe is the outdated OS.

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